Greater success is often found in failures than in victories. When we really think about it, what lessons do we truly learn from our conquests? Our succession of wins simply makes us better winners, and in worse cases, sore ones. Failure is where we experience the immensity of our growth. Our ability to reason, to reflect and to progress expands when we are faced with situation where the problems presented by our circumstances are beyond the scope of our current knowledge. Those situations challenge us to learn and to grow. If every action we took was executed with precision and perfection during the first pass, then we would be stagnant, and frankly, boring.

Our inclination to steer towards perfection is exhausting, and not to mention, impossible. In fact, trying to achieve perfection is a waste of time and is one of the greatest impediments to growth. The pursuit of perfection yield paralysis. It creates a stumbling block in our minds. The hypothetical what ifs have a tendency to fabricate and aggrandize the worse-case scenarios. Oftentimes, the results of our actions are never as horrific as we have imagined, and so what if they were? Short of doing something immoral or illegal, there is nothing wrong with stepping outside of our comfort zones—challenging ourselves.

Aside from the inherent fear of failure, many of us also get distracted by how we think others will react to and perceive our mishaps. The truth is, most of us are doing the best we can, and no one is an authority on life. Even the experts have achieved their portion of wisdom through trial and error. Therefore, we should cut ourselves some slack. We should be kind to ourselves. There is nothing wrong with trying something new, even something scary. We should now that we are flawed and imperfect, and that is okay.